Be Happy-Go Juggy-1951 Ad

Ostensibly a take-off on the famous American Tobacco Company ads that dotted the radio and early TV airwaves--perhaps best known as Jack Benny's longtime sponsor, Lucky Strike cigarettes. LSMFT becomes JCMFC. Silly? Sure. But the color-accented chests of our teenage cheerleaders here give a whole new meaning to the term "Juggy." And don't think it wasn't done on purpose. And don't think Archie's young fans didn't pick up on that.

Reefer Madness Comics

Six times for me and it was 36 years ago. That's all. Didn't do anything for me at all so I figured, why bother? That said, I had great fun working on this new book with Craig Yoe. I did a lot of the research for the introductory text and some of the writing.

For Immediate Release. 

4/20 Announcement: Reefer Madness Hits the World of Lurid Comic Book Collections

4/20, April 20th, celebrates marijuana in some smokey circles and there are calls across America for legalization, while some at the Federal Government level resoundly condemn the controversial weed. 

Degradation! Crime! Madness! Hysteria surrounded marijuana as a perceived gateway drug from the 1930's to the 1950's and beyond! Reefer Madness Comics takes it’s name from the infamous anti-drug propaganda film. This full color volume collects Pre-Code over-the-top comics about how evil weed turns innocent teenagers into suicidal hot-rodders, crazed ax murderers—and worse—pot makes our youth sexually permissive!  

Stories Include Satan’s Cigarettes, Dope Menace and I Was Teenage Racket Girl for Hollywood! The art is by greats like Frank Frazetta, Jack “King” Kirby and you’ll see the work of Superman’s creator Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster in these lurid tales! You’ll witness superhero, romance, crime and government propaganda comics all exposing the weed with its roots in Hell! See how marijuana was perceived in the days of ignorance before it was legalized by the visionary people of Oregon, Washington, and Colorado!

Eisner Award winner and old hippie Craig Yoe brings us his newest collection of wacky, wild, and culturally relevant and always entertaining comics. Yoe says, "This is one of the most fun books I've ever put together. Some of the writers and artists that created these comics must have been smoking something to concoct these ludicrous and looney tales of youth gone bad! The comics will serve up lots of lusty laughs for those who partake of contraband 'giggle-smoke.' Others attempting to snuff-out wicked marijuana cigarettes, that they are sure unleash unbridled passions, will see these comics as moral tales of dire warning!"

https://www.amazon.com/Reefer-Madness-Jerry-Siegel/dp/1506702279

How I Broke Into the Movies by Ben Turpin-1923

From FILM DAILY

Eddie Green Book Up For Award!

EDDIE GREEN, A book I recently reviewed favorably here has been nominated for an award. I've since become friends with the author, Eddie's daughter. Congratulations, Elva! An important book that deserves to be recognized as such.  Here's the press release. 

ALBANY, Ga. – March 29, 2017 — BearManor Media is pleased to announce that Eddie Green: The Rise of an Early 1900s Black American Entertainment Pioneer by Elva Diane Green is a 2016 Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Awards finalist in the Biography (Adult Nonfiction) and Performing Arts & Music (Adult Nonfiction) categories.

Eddie Green: The Rise of an Early 1900s Black American Entertainment Pioneer by daughter Elva Diane Green tells the rags-to-riches story of Green’s determination to rise above and triumph against all odds to become a pioneering Black filmmaker, and renowned songwriter, composer, radio icon, and movie actor.

“As soon as I heard [Elva] was working on this book, I sought her out to be her publisher,” said Ben Ohmart, President of BearManor Media. “It’s an important story that deserves telling, and I was determined to be a part of that.”

In an era when Black entertainers struggled to gain a foothold in show business, Eddie Green rose from poverty to prominence. Green wrote Roaring Twenties blues standard “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” which was recorded by Sophie Tucker, Bessie Smith, Louis Prima, Frank Sinatra, and many others; starred in multiple Vitaphone short films and in 1939 Broadway musical The Hot Mikado; headlined at The Apollo; appeared memorably in two of America’s most popular long-running radio series, Amos ‘n’ Andy and Duffy’s Tavern, and rivaled Oscar Micheaux for honors as a pioneering Black filmmaker.

Talent and desire propelled Eddie on stage, over the air, and into films with Louis Armstrong, Lena Horne, Hattie McDaniel, Thomas “Fats” Waller, Jackie “Moms” Mabley, and James Baskette (Uncle Remus in Walt Disney’s Song of the South), Eddie “Rochester” Anderson, and Louise Beavers.

Foreword INDIES winners will be announced during the 2017 American Library Association Annual Conference in Chicago on June 24, 2017.

Eddie Green: The Rise of an Early 1900s Black American Entertainment Pioneer ($31.95, 204 pages, 6″ x 9″, hardcover, ISBN:  978-1593939670 / $21.95, 204 pages, 6″ x 9″, paperback, ISBN: 978-1593939663) is available via Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and BearManor Media.

Elva Diane Green is the daughter and biographer of Black filmmaking pioneer and legendary songwriter and composer Eddie Green. She wrote Eddie Green: The Rise of an Early 1900s Black American Entertainment Pioneer to prove to her grandson that a person can succeed no matter the obstacles. Elva currently resides in Los Angeles.

BearManor Media is the award-winning and Pulitzer-nominated press publishes cutting-edge entertainment books, audio books, e-books, CDs, and DVDs on movies, television, radio, theater, animation, and more. Founded in 2001 by Publisher Ben Ohmart, the BearManor Media catalog now features more than 900 outstanding subjects from the obscure to the eminent.

Early Beatles Article, June 1963

Mickey Braddock-1956

Ten years before he became a Monkee, Mickey Dolenz was CIRCUS BOY!

Bela Lugosi in Arsenic and Old Lace-1944

A few clippings regarding Bela's taking on of the Karloff role in the touring company of the 1940s Broadway hit, ARSENIC & OLD LACE.

Karloff Article-1968

Here's a lovely article on the great Boris from just 9 months before his passing. Posts have been rare here lately, partly due to the fact that I've been working on a Karloff-related assignment.